I get that having problems is not unique and everyone has their own. Some people have worse or more numerous ones. Some people have fewer or less severe ones. Some people may share some of the same problems as you. Some people may not.

But one thing that is sometimes frustrating for me is that my particular set of problems makes it more difficult to connect with others and can be a bit more isolating than other kinds of problems. When your problems are social and/or sexual in nature, they affect your ability to have relationships (both platonic and romantic), which can be more isolating than other types of problems can be.

I am lucky to have a small, but fairly stable set of a handful of friends right now, but that hasn’t always been the case. Growing up, I struggled a lot more than my peers to socialize and ended up as the loner kid at school who hardly said much and ate alone at lunch. Nowadays, I’m a lot happier, but things like romantic relationships are completely off the table.